Photo via USA Today
The New York Mets announced on Thursday afternoon that Starling Marte underwent surgery on Tuesday to repair a core muscle injury sustained in the second half of this season. A typical recovery timeline is eight weeks. He’s expected to be without restriction in Spring Training.
Marte, 34, had a fantastic first season with the Mets hitting .292/.347/.468 with 24 doubles, five triples, 16 home runs, and 63 RBIs in 118 games. He stole only 18 bases and was caught stealing nine times a year after stealing 47 bases with only five caught stealing. The 136 wRC+ he posted this year was a career-high and he posted a 3.0 fWAR. MMO recently gave Marte a B+ grade for his efforts in the 2022 season.
The biggest issue for Marte during the 2022 season was being 100% when he was on the field and missing the final stretch of the season. Marte missed a month at the end of the regular season after getting hit by a pitch that broke the middle finger on his right hand and had a quad injury that lingered for most of the season. He did return from his finger injury to play in the Wild Card Series.
Mets’ GM Billy Eppler recently said the team would be comfortable with Marte playing center field in 2023 if that gave the team more options this offseason with 2022 center fielder Brandon Nimmo likely to be a highly sought-after free agent. Marte played right field 116 times for the Mets in 2022 after having never played there before in the big leagues. It was also the first season in Marte’s career that he didn’t start a game in center field.
As the Mets’ lead in the division crumbled away down the stretch they clearly missed the offense of Marte. The veteran outfielder has three years at $20.75 million annually left on his deal with the Mets that he signed last offseason.
